What's new?
NFS Manager Version History

Release 3.6 (Build 110709)

This version adds support for the operating system Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Please read the Release Notes. Higher level components of the first releases of Mac OS X Lion might not be mature enough yet to use NFS features of the lower system levels under all circumstances. Data loss can occur.
Support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has been removed. Mac OS X 10.6 is now the minimum requirement to use the application.
All components of the application now support full 64 bit operation.
The user interfaces to log in to directory services have been modified to match the design of current Mac OS X versions.
The internal architecture to communicate with Apple Open Directory Services has been redesigned in order to use the latest Mac OS X technologies.
When using Lion, the following new features of the operating system can be accessed via NFS Manager:
- Support for NFS version 4 (client only).
- Support for NFS over IPv6 (client only).
- Configuration of callback features for NFSv4 operation.
- Specific selection of TCP or UDP protocols for the different NFS sub-services.
- Opportunistic fetching of attributes via ACCESS calls.
- Disabling quota operations for specific mounts.
- Disabling extended attributes and fork features for NFSv4 access.
- Enabling Access Control Lists (“ACL permissions”) for NFSv4 access.
- Replacing POSIX permissions by ACL permissions during NFSv4 access.
- Using Unicode Normalization Form C for the encoding of names during NFS communication.

Release 3.5 (Build 101109)

Added a new option for NFS mounts on Snow Leopard to enforce display of the mounts in the Finder. This can be used as a workaround for the undocumented policy of Apple's automounter to always hide NFS automounts in Mac OS X 10.6.
The user interface and the reference manual now better differentiate between NFS browsing policies in the original NFS implementation by SUN, and NFS browsing as implemented by Apple.
The program now saves the previous NFS share definition to a backup file when repairing the NFS server setup by cleaning the configuration.
This version updates the security component to perform privileged configuration tasks.
Corrected a problem where an active “deadtimeout” mount option did not become visible when displaying the current automount setup.
Corrected a problem where blanks at certain positions in the NFS configuration file could cause NFS Manager to ignore specific or all NFS settings of the local computer.

Release 3.4 (Build 100730)

Added new Find panel to search for automount, mount, or share entries.
Added new menu item to enforce a re-read of NFS configuration data from the operating system or remote directory nodes.
The automount table has been redesigned to use two separate columns for servers and share paths.
It is now possible to sort automount entries by server or by share path.
The tables to inspect active shares offered by NFS servers can now be resized relative to each other.
Corrected a problem where automount entries could not be saved onto an Open Directory node when they didn't specify any mount options.
Corrected a user interface problem where warning messages regarding incorrect NFS share definitions could appear at the wrong location.
Corrected a problem where a misleading warning message about a possible version conflict was recorded in the administrator's system log.

Release 3.31 (Build 100316)

This version enhances compatibility with upcoming versions of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Release 3.3 (Build 091030)

This version completes full support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Added option pane to control settings of the network automounter of Mac OS X.
Added mount option to hide an NFS mount in the Finder.
Added mount option to automatically disconnect a server after it has been reported unresponsive for a specific time period.
Added mount option to suppress user interface messages that an NFS server is unresponsive if the server is reporting jukebox errors.
Added server configuration option to advertize NFS shares in the local Bonjour domain only.
Added server configuration option to define the hash table size for the list of NFS shares.
Added NFS status server configuration option to reject requests for simulated crashes.
Added feature to detect and repair a broken NFS server configuration if the server has been setup incorrectly with third-party tools or by manual intervention.
The security architecture has been modified to fulfill the latest security guidelines for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.
The graphical user interface has been enhanced.

Release 3.2 (Build 090825)

Added preliminary support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Full support will be added when Apple releases specific documents currently withheld.
Corrected a problem where short IPv4 addresses were sometimes misinterpreted in input fields if they had the meaning of a network address.

Release 3.1 (Build 080422)

Because Mac OS X 10.5.3 is fixing most of the problems of the Leopard NFS server implementation, some workarounds in the software could be deactivated.
Input sheets receiving textual input have been optimized to complete all edit operations before the sheet is closed.
A problem has been corrected where automount entries with numeric options might not have been re-read correctly by the application after those options had been set to non-default values.

Release 3.0 (Build 080226)

The application was redeveloped completely for Mac OS X 10.5 because Leopard uses a different NFS implementation. All aspects of the application have changed.

Release 2.94 (Build 070525)

By user request, a feature was added to export NFS definitions not only in binary format, but also as readable, editable text files. NFS Manager can optionally save configuration entries as Mac OS X property lists in XML format.
Many small changes in the user interface, especially some error messages and their explanations have been clarified.
The reference manual was revised.

Release 2.93 (Build 061229)

Due to legislational changes, all pricing notices regarding Value Added Tax had to be modified on January 1, 2007.

Release 2.93 (Build 060920)

This is a maintenance update which fixes a problem when NFS Manager was used to modify NFS records remotely on certain Mac OS X Tiger Server configurations. If the configuration was placed on a Open Directory node hosted by an LDAP service with strict schema checking on a non-upgraded Tiger Server, attempts to update an existing record could fail unexpectantly.

Release 2.92 (Build 060726)

Added a new feature which allows fully automatic logins to directory nodes and remote Open Directory servers using the keychain. Modifications to the NFS configuration can so be stored to a directory service without an additional authentication. For security reasons, users have to enable this feature in the preferences panel of the application before they are going to use it.
The application was modified to support changes Apple has made to the NFS implementation in recent releases of Mac OS X Tiger. This affects the following items: the server option to restrict folder cookies to a size of 32 bit for some third-party NFSv3 clients which cannot support 64 bit; the operating system option to support more than 20 NFS server daemons per system; new client options to control usage and timeouts of the attribute cache; NQNFS is no longer supported.
The application now allows to enforce the usage of read and write buffers larger than 8 KB. 16, 32, 48, and 64 KB buffer sizes can be configured for NFSv3 connections.
Various minor changes to the user interface.
Corrected a problem where some counters of the NFS statistics feature could show incorrect values when the PowerPC version of Mac OS X Tiger was used.

Release 2.9 (Build 060222)

The application is released as a Universal Binary.
Some items in the reference manual have been revised.
The menu item "Close window" has been moved to better comply with Mac OS X user interface guidelines. The application will now allow to close any window by menu or the key combination Apple+W, not only directory node windows.
Corrected a problem where changing the client access permissions for an NFS share in a certain order could create contradictory options in the share definition.

Release 2.8 (Build 050330)

The application has been modified to be fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger".

Release 2.71 (Build 050211)

This version enhances compatibility when storing NFS connection configurations (automount entries) onto certain LDAP servers. The enhancement fixes problems where the listing of NFS entries was incomplete and changes could not be written back to the server.

Release 2.7 (Build 050118)

The options for NFS connection entries have been updated to reflect changes and new features in recent Mac OS X releases. This includes removal of experimental NQNFS features, and the addition of options to control synchronous mode, advisory locking, and automount timeouts on a per-connection basis.
Many small changes and optimizations in the user interface.

Release 2.6 (Build 040317)

The application now supports the Mac OS X keychain when connecting to a directory node or a remote directory server.
The documentation has been extended.
The documentation has been updated to reflect changes in Mac OS X 10.3.3.

Release 2.51 (Build 040210)

The documentation has been extended.
The documentation has been updated to clarify issues regarding known defects of Mac OS X.
The registration panel now automatically corrects invalid values when users mistakenly paste line ending characters into the data fields.

Release 2.5 (Build 031021)

The application has been made compatible with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther". Operating system versions prior to Mac OS X 10.2.5 are no longer supported.
A new option panel to control NFS file locking features has been added for system versions that support this.
NFS Manager is no longer restricted to NetInfo access. It is now compatible with any directory service supported by Apple Open Directory. NFS automount and NFS share tables can be distributed via NetInfo and LDAP-based directory services. The application also handles read-only automount entries (shared by NIS, for example).
Because this new architecture does not need direct write access to NetInfo, it is no longer necessary to have the root account enabled when using NFS Manager.
The registration panel has been redesigned completely.
Registration is now possible for one user or all users of a computer.
NFS Manager can now search for software updates on the Internet.
The documentation has been updated.

Release 2.03 (Build 030314)

The software now supports additional types of registration keys for site and global use contracts.
Some user interface labels and messages have been rephrased.

Release 2.02 (Build 030120)

The program now saves the layout of the connection and share tables. Users in networks with "wide" IP addresses can adjust the width of the address column to their individual needs.
Some messages have been made clearer to distinguish between the activation of connection entries and the activation of mounts.
The confirmation sheet for the deletion of entries uses a modified user interface.
The program now detects when it has been launched off an unsafe file system which does not allow activation of the security component.
The documentation has been updated to reflect changes in the latest updates for Mac OS X 10.2.

Release 2.01 (Build 020902)

When defining NFS shares, the program will now accept share paths with spaces.
The program no longer displays a dummy mount point in the connection list if automatic mount point generation has been selected for a connection.
The checks for the correctness of host names and IPv4 addresses have been enhanced.
NFS Manager can now detect if the download package has been unarchived with defective compression software that destroyed parts of the application.
Under certain circumstances, the security component of NFS Manager could misdetect the prebinding mechanism of Mac OS X as an attempt to manipulate the software. This problem has been fixed. The application can now differentiate between trustworthy and harmful modification of the binaries.
When NFS Manager was told to use host names as server specifications but IP addresses were used for the definition of NFS connections, the program could crash under certain circumstances. This has been fixed.
Activation of the software could fail if the root user was the first user to launch the program after installation. This problem was solved.

Release 2.0 (Build 020823)

Support for Mac OS X 10.2 has been added. Mac OS X 10.0 is no longer supported.
The user interface has been redesigned completely. There are too many changes to list them here. While the previous versions of NFSManager followed the design rules of Mac OS X Server 1 and Apple Rhapsody, the new version is now primarily oriented at Mac OS X. Following the new guidelines, the application has been renamed to "NFS Manager".
The software now follows Apple's latest system security guidelines for Mac OS X 10.2.
The online documentation has been redesigned according to Apple Help guidelines.
Support for Apple Network Services Location technology has been added. The program is now able to automatically find NFS servers on Mac OS X Server machines.
It is now possible to query the share list of a remote NFS server.
A new panel has been added that allows to change all parameters of the NFS server.
NFS Manager can control the Finder to make a temporary connection to an NFS server.
The program has a new preference setting to use it in small networks without name resolution.
Configuration entries can now be saved to file.
The user no longer needs to be aware that each configuration change must be saved to a NetInfo server. NFS Manager automatically takes care of the necessary NetInfo operations whenever possible. For this reason, the feature to save a configuration entry to another domain was removed. To achieve the same effect, export the entry to file and import the file in the target domain.

Release 1.12 (Build 020202)

Maintenance update: Fixed a compatibility problem with Mac OS X 10.1 which prevented the successful modification of client lists for NFS exports.

Release 1.11 (Build 010924)

Some user dialogs have been changed to better explain restrictions of Mac OS X when activating NFS automounts and exports without restart.

Release 1.1 (Build 010919)

The functions for immediate NFS activation have been enhanced considerably. The menu item "Activate Changes" has been replaced by two new items "Activate Mounts" and "Activate Exports".
Connections to NFS servers can now be unmounted.
NFSManager has been updated in respect to modified mount semantics in newer versions of Darwin. The program now avoids to mount an already active connection more than once.
The program respects new NFS server configuration features that have been introduced in Mac OS X Server 10.0 and Mac OS X 10.1.
The NFS statistics window now uses a split view to display client and server counters. Note: Registration keys for version 1.0 are still valid for 1.1.

Release 1.01 (Build 010618)

Updated release notes for Mac OS X 10.0.3.

Release 1.0 (Build 010505)

After five months of beta testing, the first official version of NFSManager is released.
Corrected a minor bug where editing text fields did not mark the window as edited.
The number of security and consistency checks was extended even further. The user will be notified if there seem to be problems with mount points or shared folders.
Added registration panel.Release 1.0 Beta 7b (Build 010412)
Extended free license to April 30, 2001

Release 1.0 Beta 7 (Build 010324)

When the user was logged in as root and chose a privileged command in NFSManager, a logon panel was shown (which was unnecessary) and the application could fall into an infinite loop allocating all available memory. This bug has been fixed. Note that logging in as root in generally not recommended and Mac OS X 10.0 is unable to store preference values for root in its default configuration.

Release 1.0 Beta 6 (Build 010319)

Changed user interface to comply with new Aqua Guidelines
Updated security model to be compatible with Mac OS X 10.0
Removed workarounds specific to Public Beta
Extended free license to April 15, 2001

Release 1.0 Beta 5 (Build 010203)

Corrected a timeout problem when traversing the NetInfo domain hierarchy. In a large NetInfo network NFSManager should have much better response times now.
Added additional note on server name resolution in the online documentation

Release 1.0 Beta 4 (Build 010127)

NFSManager now supports activation of static NFS mounts and NFS exports without rebooting the computer
Added NFS statistics panel
Changed application launch to check for system environment.

Release 1.0 Beta 3 (Build 010119)

Extended free license to March 24, 2001
Modified tool tips to comply with Apple Help Tag Guidelines
Minor change to the file menu
Added missing back link on the version history page.

Release 1.0 Beta 2 (Build 001117)

NFSManager now supports NFS mounts that don't use the "net" option.
The user gets visual feedback when NetInfo authentication has failed.
The server names were checked against RFC 952 syntax which was too strict for NFS shares. NFSManager now will accept FQDN names and IP addresses in dotted notation, too.
Empty names for Kerberos realms were accepted in the advanced mount options panel. This problem has been fixed.
A workaround has been developed that replaces the broken NIOpenPanel class of Mac OS X Public Beta. When defining NFS mounts, the user can press the "Select" button to choose from a list of NFS shares known in the NetInfo database.
Minor problems have been fixed in the selection of NetInfo domains.
The domain browsers have been made robust against some (not necessarily all) NetInfo communication failures and denial of permission across untrusted subnets.
All alert panels that don't need a modal response from the user have been replaced by sheets.
Screen photos in the documentation have been cleaned up.
This version history page has been added.

Release 1.0 Beta (Build 001110)

First public version.

What's new? NFS Manager Version History